Dear Editor,
Re: “Truckin'”, February 2 issue.
Great read, but please allow me to point out what I believe is a red herring and really what the core of this article is missing, and what many who don’t understand the urgency so many people protesting feel about this.
First of all, I am fully vaccinated and so is my wife. But we do have a lot of very intelligent and compassionate vaccine hesitant friends. This article references previous work related mandates, but this is where the red herring lays:
1) Most of those mandates were in place BEFORE they became truckers, so they could make the decision whether those mandates were in line with what they felt comfortable taking on as a career to support their families.
2)(And this is *BY FAR* the more important one) Those mandates have nothing to do with putting a substance that certain people feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable, if not TERRIFIED to put into their bodies.
So regarding the second. Let’s examine and unpack this for a moment. Is it logical for them to be so hesitant or afraid? Mainstream media and the government say it’s not. But look at governments the world over, both in ancient history and currently as well. We cannot always trust what they say. But even more importantly. Let’s look at the science. If we look at the short term data, it’s almost a no brainer yes. But if you look at the long term data… well… that’s another story and is where most people’s hesitations lay.
The thing is… There is NO long term data. If this where a vaccine using the technology we’ve been using for decades, there would be very, very, very little room for concern because we have had long term experience with something that effectively works on the same mechanics. This is NOT the case with mRNA vaccines. It is a completely different mechanism giving genetic instructions that has never been done before. The THEORY is DECADES old. The practice of putting it into peoples bodies is completely new. There are NO long term clinical trials on a significantly large sample size of humans using this new technology pre-COVID at all. None what-so-ever. And in that, I can completely understand people’s hesitancy putting it into their bodies. And in that I can see the logic and validity in the worry. And it is for that reason I can understand, support and sympathize with those who would protest mandating it.
Mathieu Louis-Seize
In December 1967 a patient in South Africa was dying from heart disease. Dr. Bernard offered him the chance to try a heart transplant, he agreed, he lived more than one year. While the occupation in Ottawa was underway (this was not a protest) doctors in Baltimore transplanted a pig’s heart in a human, the patient is still alive. When the polio vaccine came out in 1954 there were many hesitant people, so much so that Elvis agreed to get the vaccine on live tv on the Ed Sullivan show to calm nerves.
In 1905 Einstein published his relativity theory. Since then teams of scientist around the world have tested it with sophisticated computers. The new telescope in space will also test it. So far Einstein and his pencil have been proven right every time.
My dad use to say there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who believe in science and the rest of you.
The science in the vaccine has been studied by the brightest minds in medicine for 30 years. It is the same science that produced stem cell treatments. A doctor I saw on a documentary said, “We don’t know yet exactly how it works, but it works the same way every time.”
The important piece of knowledge the occupiers lacked is the scientific method. That’s our fault in not teaching it in elementary school until it is well understood.
But there is no excuse for the behaviour in Ottawa. If you don’t get vaccinated live with the consequences.
Ukrainians are showing us what freedom looks like. It’s not hot tubs and bouncy castles.